Embodiments described herein relate generally to providing information to a social networking system. Specifically, embodiments described herein relate to identifying and providing physical social actions to a social networking system.
Social networks, or social utilities that track and enable connections between users (including people, businesses, and other entities), have become prevalent. In particular, a social networking system allows users to more efficiently communicate information that is relevant to their friends or other connections in the social network. Social networks typically incorporate a system for maintaining connections among users in the social network and links to content that are likely to be relevant to the users. Social networks also collect and maintain information about the users of the social network. This information may be static, such as geographic location, employer, job type, age, music preferences, interests, and a variety of other attributes, or it may be dynamic, such as tracking a user's actions within the social network.
Additionally, a social networking system may receive information describing the interactions of its users with entities external to the social networking system. For example, social networking system users may purchase goods or services from vendors at physical retail locations or through websites associated with the vendors. The social networking system users may then elect to share this information with the social networking system. Incorporating this external information provides the social networking system with additional information about its users, thereby allowing the social networking system to provide a wider range of information to its users. Because social networking system users are likely to have diverse interests and demographic characteristics, adding information about activities occurring external to the social networking system allows further analysis of social networking system users.
While incorporating a user's interactions external to the social networking system enriches the social networking system experience, users typically perform innumerable social actions every day that are not added to the system. In some cases, the social actions are not added because, even though informative, they escape the notice of the user. In other cases, the social actions are not added to the social networking system because it is not convenient for the user to do so. In particular, physical social actions performed without the aid of a computing device or intentional use of the social networking system may be less convenient to contribute to the social networking system. This is particularly true during times when a user engages in many brief social interactions, such as meeting people at a party or a conference. Regardless of the reason, the social networking experience could be enriched by providing the social networking system with descriptions of physical social interactions.